The Painful Journey of Mohammed Idris and Jainaf Fatema: A Story of Survival Amidst Intense Conflict

By, M. Arif

Mohammed Idris, 23 years old was brutally tortured and forced to leave his home by the Arakan Army (AA), while his wife, Jainaf Fatema, 21 was pregnant at the final month of her delivery. The mud field became hospital, the brine of the river was her daily drinking, no food, and the sunshine were as fire to seek during her newborn on the journey to cross the border of Bangladesh. This journey of both Idris and Fatema is unforgettable and the challenges they encountered are quite difficult and unable to express in words.

Since early 2021, the Arakan Army (AA) has been continuously fighting against the coup Military Council of Myanmar in Arakan state, mostly in the territory of Maungdaw and Buthidaung. In most of their fights between AA and the coup Military Council, the AA rebel group won many (battles) fighting and controlled many townships of Arakan state. At 9:30 p.m. local time on May 17, AA decimated the town of Buthidaung, reducing it to ashes. The CNN clearly stated with satellite images comparing the view of the town before attack to after attack, the satellite imagery showed huge fires engulfed downtown Buthidaung on Saturday morning and continued to burn over the weekend. Remote sensing data curated by NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System and viewed by CNN suggests that the fires spread in the early hours, while satellite imagery collected by space technology company Maxar and obtained by CNN shows large-scale destruction across Buthidaung on the day of burning.

“The entire town is burning,” said Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist originally from Buthidaung, and co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition. “Few houses remain intact, only a few.”, CNN, on Thu May 23, 2024. That’s happened while the entire town of Buthidaung became under AA’s control fully, and there were no reports of military movement, but tortures and killings including the looting of Rohingya homes materials and the things expensive by the armed forces of AA.

Farooq, a Rohingya poet living as a refugee in neighboring Bangladesh, told CNN that “In Buthidaung, when my (family) home and when my mom was asked to leave the village, there was no fight at all. There is no military left, no base, no junta there “.

The violence in Maungdaw, the home village of Idris, was even more catastrophic, with the Rohingya facing relentless attacks from both the Rakhine AA group and the Myanmar military. Desperate to escape the violence, many Rohingya tried to flee by boat to Bangladesh, and some of them have survived, landed in the camps of Cox’s Bazar with just their single breath.

On August 5th and 6th, 2024, multiple drone and shelling attacks along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border killed over one hundred Rohingya women, children, and men as they sought to flee to safety in Bangladesh, Fortify Right, on August 27, 2024.

However, their attempts at survival were thwarted as the AA launched drone strikes, killing hundreds of Rohingya mostly women, girls, children, babies, including pregnant women.

“On August 5, a crowd estimated in the thousands of Rohingya civilians were attacked with mortar fire and drones as they gathered on the banks of the Naf River in Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State. The next day, August 6, AA soldiers shot to death dozens of fleeing Rohingya civilians along the border, also in Maungdaw Township “, said Rohingya eyewitnesses and survivors to Fortify Right.

Fatema, the wife of Idris, was pregnant. The expected date of her delivery (EDD) was very closed, like to be delivered the newborn at the moment while they both were brutally forced to leave their home including the people were living in Maungdaw township.

“The tears became the bottles of water, felt like to die alone, lost the hope to survive, and the thoughts flied away to think as normal, while I alone with my pregnant wife Fatema were forced to leave my home, despite robing, 3 tical of gold, 10 lakhs of MMK (1 million) and the materials of in needs as expensive of my home including my one expensive smartphone by the forces AA”, said Idris.

The decision toward crossing the border of Bangladesh was quite challenging for Idris during the time of his wife’s pregnancy, Fatema’s final day to have delivery of her pregnancy. He said, I saw lots of home were burned down, many people were killed with artillery shelling, hundreds of death bodies of Rohingya people, mostly women, girls, children were on the streets, beside the roads, and all around the places where the forces of AA crossed and walked.

“Once again, armed forces are driving thousands of Rohingya from their homes with killings and arson, leaving them nowhere safe to turn “, said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, on August 22, 2024.

Fatema was unable to walk by foot herself and there were no services of vehicle to carry the people to another place. During that moment, Idris, himself took his wife on his shoulder and carried to a place far from his home, nearly the beach where the small boats are rarely found to cross the border of Bangladesh.

It took them more than a week to reach the Bangladesh and many days passed to find their relatives living in the world’s largest Rohingya refugee camp cox’s Bazar Bangladesh.

“I again and again saw, a lot of death bodies on the way of the beach, floating on the water, some are single legs, heads, half of the bodies, and full of the bodies floating over the sea. And while we were on the boat crossing the river to reach the border of Bangladesh, 1 boat was targeted to drones and sunk into the water, which was a little bit far from our boat but I could see clearly burning, then sank”, said Idris.

The reports collected and published by Human Rights Watch, titled- Myanmar: New Atrocities Against Rohingya. Escalating Fighting Amid 7 Years of Desperation, “nearly 200 people were reportedly killed following drone strikes and shelling on civilians fleeing fighting in Maungdaw town near the Bangladesh border “, according to Rohingya witnesses and survivors,

Despite these all, Idris faced another major problem, the delivering of her wife on the way of their journey to saving life in Bangladesh. 1 day passed while they both were struggling to reach at the border, his wife, Fatema started pain, stomached, dizziness, vomiting and other types of annoying of what a mother faces during the delivery of a newborn. These happened while there were no, hospital, medicine, water, clothes, midwife, doctor, and even a place to rest instead, the field of the mud and the street with dirty infected water including smelling of death bodies nearby them.

I had a wish to give my baby birth in a place with peace and recognize my child as the citizen of his homeland country, Myanmar. The hope became deep tunnel of lightless darkness, the taste of a peaceful birth turned into the endless storm, finally, the birthday of my baby was not less than death alive. And the mud field that even energetic man cannot walk well had been the place his first day of this planet, which sorrowful moment I can never forget in my life, said Jainaf Fatema.

Imagine, you are a woman with the last month of your pregnancy walking while the sounds of different guns are being heard, you are viewing people are being killed by destructive drones’ attack, and hundreds death bodies killed by the armed forces are on the ground. And you are alone lack of access to any medical treatment and all the types of pains are started including the baby torturing you to foot into the world. What would be your feeling and thoughts like at that critical situation? These are how Fatema, the wife of Idris struggled more than the words cannot have described above to save the life of her newborn, leaving the challenges aside.

This is a journey of this two couples, who could not fill their dream of what they both wished together from thousands of journeys crossed the border of Bangladesh to save their life and to seek protection. Many of these journeys express unimaginable stories like the human should not face once even in their entire life.

The analyses of these journeys clearly find that, the intention of the Arakan Army (AA) is to clear the land of Arakan without a single Rohingya despite being the indigenous people of Arakan state.

According to the opinion shared- The fate of the Rohingya may be in the Arakan Army’s hands, by Prof. Nasir Uddin, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chittagong “The rebel group Arakan Army (AA), for its part, largely accepted the Myanmar government’s narrative that the Rohingya are migrants and do not belong in the country “, ALJAZEERA, on 3 Jul, 2024.

The rest of Rohingya, left after the brutal genocide against Rohingya in late August, 2017 by the military juntas including border guard police and local Rakhine people, were trapped between AA and Military in Arakan state. Hundreds of Rohingya youths were forcibly conscripted into military field to fight against armed group without proper training and documentation. And countless innocent Rohingya women, girls, children including men are killed with drones’ attack while crossing the border and many of them are targeted with artillery shelling in their own home by rebel group AA. Similarly highlighted by Human Rights Watch, “Rohingya have been caught in the middle of the fighting since hostilities resumed in November 2023, ending a year-long unofficial ceasefire “, on August 22, 2024.

Due to the tortures, kidnapping, murder, rapping, looting, massacring, forcibly conscription and other heinous kinds of persecution against Rohingya ethnic minority people lived in Arakan state by the Rakhine rebel group AA and Myanmar military junta, thousands of Rohingya had to leave their home and flee into the land of Bangladesh since early August, 2024. Hundreds of people had been being killed and massacred by both groups AA and Military. Most of these persecution lead by AA, resulted more than genocide, remarked of 2^nd wave of genocide ( genocide 2.0 again Rohingya ethnic minority Muslim) in Arakan state Myanmar.

Whether it is an armed group or freedom fighters, those who commit crimes against humanity must be held accountable. The deliberate killing of hundreds of Rohingya with the clear intent of ethnic cleansing is not just a war crime, it is genocide. The international community must speak out and take immediate action to ensure justice for the Rohingya ethnic minority in Arakan State, Myanmar. The world cannot afford to stand by and allow history to repeat itself.

“This atrocity unfolded before the eyes of the world, which, despite witnessing the horrors, has largely remained silent,”

The Fortify Right requested to International Criminal Court, (ICC) to investigate Arakan Army Massacre of Rohingya Civilians, Hold Perpetrators Accountable.

Idris and his wife, Jannat are now living in the shelter of their relatives in the camps of Cox’s Bazar, who fled in August, 2017. Facing various kinds of hardship although the World Food Program (WFP) have providing some limited rations. And mostly access to medical services. Despite siding the challenges he faced and overcame from Maungdaw Township, Arakan state Myanmar to Bangladesh refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Mohammed Idris has been facing financial problem in fulfilling their daily basis. Jannat and her baby has been struggling with severe daises for not being able get proper treatment.

We are in need of a place to live, some money for daily cost, including the medical treatment at any cost, expressed Idris, his wife Jannat and the relative they are facilitated. Humbly requesting for humanitarian aid and access to identification as soon as possible, to the government of Bangladesh and the humanitarian Aids agencies providing services to Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationality (FDMN) and registered Rohingya refugees.

For more stories and information like Idris & Fatema, including many new arrivals victim of since early August, 2024, please contact with our official;

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